Bayswater's Find of the Week on the Used Book Floor Blog

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

If you have read some of our past “Find of the Week
on the Used Book Floor” blogs, you know that we are always game to conduct any
type of research that helps us to learn about our discoveries. This week, however, provided our most
challenging quest yet: translating German to English. Yes, our find this week
is from Germany!

Nestled
into the pages of Anita Shreve’s 2013 paperback copy of “Stella Bain” was a ticket
to SUC Bus Und Aquaria Gmbl. Translation?
In case you are not fluent in German, (and we certainly aren’t), we
discovered that SUC Bus Und Aquaria Gmbl is an indoor/outdoor facility in
Coburg, Germany, that boasts large swimming pools, waterslides, comprehensive
diving facilities, saunas, wellness centers, and more. In fact, for short, they are known as the SUC
Aquaria und mehr, which means “aquarium and more” in German. The ticket cost 1.60 euros (about $1.90 in
dollars) and was purchased for one time use by an individual who visited the
facility on August 8th of 2017.
What a journey that ticket has been on to get here to New Hampshire!

What is
particularly interesting about SUC Bus Und Aquaria Gmbl is its location. Coburg, Germany, lies in the foothills of the
Thuringian Forest and is located 80 miles west of the Czech border. Unlike many areas of Germany, Coburg was
barely damaged in World War II and as a result, it still contains most of the original
historic buildings and castles, making the town a popular tourist destination. We found it slightly notable that with all of
the castles, theaters, historic parks, museums and churches to see, the
individual who visited Coburg chose to go to the water park. Maybe they had already experienced enough
history for one day.

We would
be remiss if we didn’t tell you, though, that Coburg’s biggest claim to fame is
being the possible birthplace of…wait for it… the hot dog. Though The National Hot Dog and Sausage
Council (yes, that really exists) claims that Frankfurt, Germany, is the
birthplace of the hot dog, this claim is hotly disputed throughout the country,
as many believe that a butcher in Coburg created the classic (some valuable
trivia for you, right there).

Shreve’s “Stella
Bain” is for sale here at Bayswater for $4.99 and includes the ticket in German. Perhaps you can do an even better job of
translating it all! Just a reminder that
we will be publishing one blog at the beginning of each month only during the
winter months, but you can catch up with our previous finds of the week from
the used book floor at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook. Better yet, stop by the store in Center
Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Do you
ever catch your mind drifting while you are reading a book? You know, one minute you know what is going
on, and the next minute you have no idea who is speaking or how a character is
related to the story? It happens to all
of us and this week’s “Find of the Week on the Used Book Floor” was designed
for just those moments.

Our find
was discovered in John Hersey’s 1950 book, “The Wall”, whichtells the fictional story of 40 men and
women who escape the Warsaw ghetto in the early 1940s. Tucked into the front cover of the book was a
small booklet written 67 years ago entitled, Cast of Characters. The booklet lists the 60 characters that are
in the book, along with their nationality and relationship to other
characters. Yes, you read that right –
there are 60 important characters. There
are Officers of the Jewish Council, Leaders of the Underground Groups, Leaders
of the Jewish Fighter Organization, and many other character groups.

Interestingly,
at the top of the booklet, the author of the booklet wrote that “because of the
unfamiliarity of East European names, readers of “The Wall”may find this occasionally useful for identification.” Occasionally useful? We don’t know about you, but with 60 characters,
we think that this booklet would be strapped to our sides at all times during
the reading of the book. One brief drift of the mind and we would be
in for a long reference check in the handy dandy booklet. Heck - that would most likely happen without
the stray of mind!

Ironically, a review written in April of 1950 (as the book was first
published) praised author John Hersey for “concentrating on a manageable group
of characters.” Really? What, then, would be an unmanageable amount
of characters? We think that the author
of that review, upon reading recent works of fiction, would be pretty
disappointed in the average number of characters in contemporary novels. We don’t know about you, but we have never
read a book that contained 60 characters and was accompanied by a reference
booklet to keep them all straight!
Really, you gotta love what we come across in the pages of our used
books.

Hersey’s “The
Wall” is for sale here at Bayswater for $9.99, complete with the character
reference booklet (and you are going to need it). Just a reminder that we will be publishing
one blog at the beginning of each month only during the winter months, but you
can catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook.
Better yet, stop by the store in Center Harbor and check out the used
book floor for yourself!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Missing a favorite
family photo, or snapshot of good times with friends? We think you might be, too, and this week we
just have to share our array of photos that have been discovered in the books
on our used book floor.

Now,
before you start worrying that we might have a snapshot of you at that
unfortunate family costume shindig you may have attended last week or month,
rest assured; the majority of the photos we have found are clearly from decades
past, most likely from the 80s and earlier because the photos have rounded
edges. All seasons are represented, as
we have family photos in the woods with fall foliage in the background and a
winter shot with those captured posing with a snowman they created. Summer by the water is clearly favored,
though, as snapshots of happy individuals in boats, near boats, or just the
boats, themselves, were numerous. We
even have a snapshot of Fido (enter any dog’s name you want here) sitting on
a boat. What is it with the boats, huh?

A few of
our favorites are of a family christening event in 1950. These older photos
depict the well dressed family members, including the children, in their formal
attire at a church, all smiles. We know
that these pictures were taken in 1950 because the photos are dated, but no
names or places were included in the inscription on the back.

While we
have found the time frames and clothing fashions very interesting (and we need
to note that the shorts length for men has greatly improved since the 1970s),
we also feel that each picture has story to tell. Where are the people today that we see in the
snapshots, and what has happened to them since?
Would they remember the day that was captured in these pictures? Does it make you think of a day that you wish
you could have a snapshot of to remember?

Normally
we tell you what book our “find” was discovered in and list its sale price, but
in this case, the photos came from a number of books. You will also be noticing that for the winter
months, we will only be posting a column/blog during the first week of the
month. Fear not, however – we will be
back on a weekly basis when spring arrives.

To catch
up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always
check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in
Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Ever been
to the island of Grenada in the West Indies?
We haven’t, either, but our find of the week on the used book floor
comes from this Caribbean haven that is near the islands of St. Lucia and
Barbados.

Hiding inside the pages of Alice Hoffman’s book, Blue Diary was a business card from Grenada stating “Boat for Hire” at the
top and in smaller letters below, the name of the boat, “Prosperity 3.” The owner’s name is listed as “Eric Carlisle”
and he suggests his services for activities such as “snorkeling, picnics,
sightseeing, or your choice”. We
actually found this card right after the series of hurricanes that recently
passed through many of the Caribbean islands, so we thought that we would give
Mr. Carlisle a call and see how his boat rentals are faring in Grenada after
such an active hurricane season. Blog
research, we call it.

Seems
like a simple task, right? Look on the
card and call the number listed, we thought.
Ahh…here is where the adventure truly began. The business card does not list a phone
number. If you want to book an adventure on the Prosperity 3, you have to go
find the owner somewhere along the Grand Anse Beach or on the Carenage (which
is basically like a long stretch of scenic waterfront in Grenada). Because we are nowhere near the island of
Grenada currently (and we do not give up easily), we decided to call a boat
rental establishment that is near the beach to ask if anyone knew how we could
contact Eric Carlisle/Prosperity 3.
Really, we thought, who doesn’t have a phone number on a business card?

Apparently, many small businesses on Grenada. After checking with several people in the background,
the man on the phone told us that in order to speak to Eric Carlisle and book
Prosperity 3, we would need to talk to “Tall John”. Brace yourself for this one: Tall John does
not have a phone, either. He can only be
found by asking around the fish market in downtown, St. George, Grenada. Really?
Business cards with no phone numbers, boat rentals that are only booked
by finding the man by the beach and a mysterious contact (who seemingly cannot
be contacted) named Tall John. We can’t
make this stuff up.

We
definitely can’t help you get a boat rental in Grenada, but Blue Diary is for
sale (with boat rental business card included) here at Bayswater for $4.99. To catch up with our previous finds of the
week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center Harbor and
check out the used book floor for yourself!

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Wedged into the pages
of a 1950 copy of author John Hersey’s “The Wall” was where we found our most
recent discovery on the used book floor - a 1970 church program from St. Thomas
Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. The
program, itself, is interesting, as it is now 47 years old, printed on fragile
paper and clearly typed on an old fashioned typewriter. The church, however, holds bigger historical
interest. Read on, friends, read on.

Though
many of us have heard of the battle of Germantown that took place in October of
1777 during the Revolutionary War and the infamous winter that Washington’s
troops spent at Valley Forge shortly after, few are familiar with the Battle of
Whitemarsh that took place between the two events. This three day battle was where our find of
the week, the church program from St. Thomas Church in Whitemarsh, comes into
play.

Reeling
from the defeat in Germantown and the British takeover of Philadelphia,
Washington’s Contintental Army retreated to the township of Whitemarsh in wait
for more reinforcements (that would never come). General Howe, Commander-in-Chief of the
British Forces, attempted to put a more decisive dagger in the hearts of
Washington’s 12,000 troops by marching to Whitemarsh and attacking at night in
December of 1777. Howe and his 10,000
men captured the St. Thomas Church and immediately began to use the bell tower
as their lookout post. From the top of
the church, Howe observed Washington’s army and made his plans for attack. This time, however, the Continental Army
prevailed, holding the line and forcing Howe to retreat. Washington and his men then hunkered down for
the winter in nearby Valley Forge and, as we know, suffered the loss of
thousands of his troops due to massive disease and starvation.

So, what
happened to St. Thomas Church, the captured lookout post for the British? The building’s structure, already badly
damaged from the effects of the battle of Germantown, suffered further
destruction during its three day occupation.
It is now rebuilt and on its grounds, you will find a cemetery that is
the burial ground for many Revolutionary War soldiers.

Didn’t
know about this battle and the role that the St. Thomas Church played? We didn’t either. You gotta love where the finds in our used
books lead us! We are learning a lot,
here, and we hope you are, too.

The “The
Wall” (with St. Thomas Church program included) it is for sale here at
Bayswater for the price of $25.00. To
catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can
always check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store
in Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Monday, October 23, 2017

Our most recent find of
the week on the used book floor clearly came from someone who may have been
dealing with some inner conflict. What
type of inner conflict, you may ask, and what makes us so sure? Keep reading and see what you think.

The book
that held the finds is entitled, “Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders” and it
was written by Garry Willis in 1994.
Willis is famous for his previous book, “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” which
gave the reader an in-depth look at President Lincoln as a leader. Willis later won the Pulitzer and other
prestigious awards for his writing in this book. “Certain Trumpets” picks up where “Lincoln at
Gettysburg” left off and examines leaders from political, artistic, sports,
military, business and religious realms.
He discusses how leaders are shaped and how they must help to shape the
actions of others. The book also states
that in order for one to be called a leader, he/she must have followers.

Here is
where the conflict comes to light.
Hidden in different pages of the book were two political campaign bumper
stickers, each from the 1996 United States presidential campaign. One bumper sticker stated bold support for
CLINTON/GORE, while roughly 50 pages later, the second bumper sticker clearly
advocated for DOLE/KEMP. Both appeared
to be used as bookmarks for places in the book that the reader agreed with, or
could relate to. Yes, that is right –
the person reading this book had campaign stickers from both of the candidates
(i.e. conflict) in a book about leadership.

See what
we mean? Was the reader unsure of who to
vote for, so he/she used campaign stickers from each candidate to align with
different sections of the book in the hopes that it would provide clarity? Was he/she looking to become a “follower” of
one of the political leaders, as Willis mentions in his book? Did the book provide any insight at all, or
were the bumper stickers left in this book because the reader could not decide
on either one of the candidates? Can you
sense the inner struggle, here? We only
wish we knew what conclusion the reader came to when voting day rolled around
in November.

The 1994 copy of
“Certain Trumpets” (complete with stickers) it is for sale here at Bayswater
for the price of $15.00, as it is a first edition hardcover. To catch up with our previous finds of the
week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center Harbor and
check out the used book floor for yourself!

Friday, October 13, 2017

This week’s find on the
used book floor has all of the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: secret
codes, alien communication and the chosen linguists who can help decipher the
hidden messages. In order to help you make
sense of it all, we first need to tell you a little bit about the book that our
discovery was found in.

“Earthsong: Native Tongue II” was written in 1994 and tells the story of
a futuristic Earth where economic survival depends on communication and trade
with alien species. A limited number of
linguists, all women, were trained from birth in “non-human language” so that
only they could provide translations during alien interactions. When tragedy strikes with the aliens, Earth
is plunged into disaster and the women linguists are the only ones who can help
avert the end of civilization.

Now, you
are probably wondering where we are going with all of this.Hang in there with us, because nestled in the
pages of “Earthsong” was a newspaper clipping from 1994, originally published
in the Chicago Tribune.The article
tells of the discovery of secret script written by women in China nearly 2000
years ago.Though the entire story
behind the ancient script, or code, may never be truly known, it is believed
that at that time, women in China were mostly unable to read and write because very few were sent to school.As they got married and left their homes, the women created a secret
language, or code, to communicate with each other.This code was sewn into fans, scarves, handkerchiefs,
and napkins, and was then sent to their friends and families to help keep in
touch.The article describes how Nu Shu,
as the language is now referred to, was deciphered for the general public in
1991 and translated into Chinese.The
translation was then published as a book and the proceeds were donated to a
women’s organization in China.

Is it a
coincidence that the “Earthsong” book and the article that was found in it are
both about women code writers/breakers?
We think not. Maybe the reader
saw a connection between the code breakers in the article (what took place in
the past) and those in the book (what could be the future). Maybe the reader was actually able to
decipher actual secret codes in each! If
you have read our past blogs/columns, you know that we can get easily carried
away with possible scenarios regarding the finds in our used books. This may be what is happening here, but who
can say for sure?

The 1994
copy of “Earthsong: Native Tongue II” (with article included) it is for sale
here at Bayswater for the price of $4.99.
To catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book
floor, you can always check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or
stop by the store in Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for
yourself!

Saturday, October 7, 2017

We think that all discoveries made in the pages of
our used books are interesting, though not all in the same way. Some are historical and rare, some poignant, some
humorous, while others are just plain quirky.
This week’s find falls somewhere between the realms of the historical
and quirky, all tied into one.

Hidden
inside a 1950 hardcover copy of a classic, “The Scarlet Letter,” was a Mobil
Oil Company gas receipt purchased by a man in Exeter, NH, on May 30, 1966. This date was Memorial Day during that year and
while we don’t know where he was going that day, we did some research to find
out what he may have been thinking about as he watched the scenery speed by his
car window 51 years ago.

Memorial
Day always seems to illicit a mix of emotions from people, and in addition to
these feelings, we surmise that the man may have been concerned about the 300
U.S. airplanes that were bombing Vietnam, or anxious to see if NASA’s robotic
spacecraft, Surveyor 1, would actually land on the moon to gather the data
needed to launch the upcoming Apollo missions (after all, President Kennedy had
set a goal for the U.S. to land a man on the moon by 1970).Or, perhaps he was feeling a little lighter
as the day took shape because the weather was a promising 62 degrees and
sunny.Such buoyancy may have found him
listening on his car radio to the Indianapolis 500 race when driver Graham Hill
crossed the finish line in first place.

Whatever
the destination or mood, we do know that the customer who bought the gas for
his car that day was a NH resident and he purchased his fuel for a total of
$3.20. Today, that would mean that he
bought less than two gallons of gas.
Guess how many gallons he bought in May of 1966? You are going to sigh when we reveal it, but
we must. The answer is: 10. Yep, you got it: the NH man bought 10 gallons
of gas for a total of roughly .32 cents a gallon. Things have changed just a little since then,
huh?

The 1950 copy
of “The Scarlet Letter” (including the receipt) it is for sale here at Bayswater
for the price of $15.00. To catch up
with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always
check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in
Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Saturday, September 30, 2017

If you have been
reading our past “Find of the Week on the Used Book Floor” blogs, you know that
our discoveries often have a historical significance or meaning to them. This week is not the case. Fear not, however, as our most recent find is
certainly just as interesting as the rest.

Tucked
into the 1973 first edition book, “The Road Through Sandwich Notch” was a
bookmark from a fellow independent bookstore, the Concord Bookshop, located in
Massachusetts. On the other side of the
bookmark, however, was the true find – a grocery list. Now, you may be asking: what is so interesting
about a grocery list? Ah, behold the
conclusions we have made from these items.

Upon studying
the grocery list, one could make a few assumptions:

1.The
milk, two bananas, juice, coffee, banana bread, and Life cereal are intended
for breakfast

2.The
Comet and dish soap are to be used for cleaning purposes

3.The
cheese and crackers go together for a possible appetizer scenario

4.The
bread is quite likely going to end up being used at lunchtime for sandwiches

After
taking those items away, the following remain on the list: potatoes, chicken,
tomatoes, and green beans. Left with
those four items and because breakfast, lunch, and appetizers have already been
accounted for above, we wondered, (and we know that you are, too) what is for
dinner? So glad you asked.

We
googled dinner recipes that contain all four of those items and the most commonly
reviewed recipe we found was...drumroll…“30 Minute Pan with Chicken, Potatoes,
Green Beans and Tomatoes” (creative name, we know, but hey, we didn’t create
the recipe). Now, we’ll admit, a lemon
and a myriad of spices are also required to get this dish off the ground, but
let’s assume that our shopper already had those at home. Basically, after a little slicing, dicing,
drizzling, seasoning, and caramelizing, this recipe touts itself as a “healthy
one-pan dinner, guaranteed to please all” who dine on it.

So, there
you have it! We have created/surmised
three meals, (along with appetizers and products to clean up with after those
meals) all from one measly 16 item shopping list! We know that you are
wondering what we can do with your list this week, too…

The 1973 first
edition of “The Road Through Sandwich Notch” (complete with the inspired
bookmark/grocery list) it is for sale here at Bayswater for the price of
$40.00, as it is a valuable book. To
catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can
always check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store
in Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

This week’s discovery on our used book floor came
pressed inside of the front cover of the 1950 first edition book, “The
Outlander”. No, this is not an early
version of author Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” that is a current bestselling
series and popular TV show. This “Outlander”
was written by Germaine Guevremont and published over 40 years before the 1991 time traveling Gabaldon book was
written.

Our unique find is a small certificate from
the Editors of TIME Magazine that awarded a member of the junior class at
Alexander High School (NY) with the “First Section Junior Class Prize” for the
TIME Current Affairs Contest in 1950.
Never heard of this contest? We
hadn’t, either. We discovered that in 1935,
TIME asked two young college professors to draft a current affairs test for use
in high schools and colleges across the United States. The questions were based on stories that were
heavily covered in TIME magazine and major U.S. newspapers for a six month
period of time (Jan-June and July-Dec).
It eventually became known as the Cooperative Contemporary Affairs Test
for the American Council on Education.

Shirley
Brown, the national 1950 First Section Junior Class Prize winner from
Alexander, New York, was awarded the new, (at the time) first edition “Outlander”
book as a prize. Ms. Brown must have
taken the test that encompassed events from Jan-June 1950, as the book was
published in late spring of that year.
We figure that Ms. Brown may have been tested about events such as
President Truman’s report on how to handle the Cold War with the Soviet Union,
Senator McCarthy’s beginnings of Communist persecutions, and the issuing of the
first credit cards. It made us wonder: how
many of us would pass a current affairs test covering the first half of 2017 if
it were given today?

If you
are interested in owning the 1950 copy of “The Outlander,” (complete with award
certificate) it is for sale here at Bayswater for the price of $15.99 – and you
do not have to take a quiz in order to purchase it! To catch up with our previous finds of the
week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center Harbor and
check out the used book floor for yourself!

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

This week’s find may look small in stature, but it
tells a very interesting story. Resting
comfortably on pg. 222 of Thomas Thompson’s 1979 novel, “Serpentine,” was a plastic
clip of some sort (most likely a bookmark).
The clip was beaded at the top and looked similar to patterns used among
Native American tribes. Upon further
examination, the back of the clip/bookmark stated that it belonged to St. Labre
Indian School in Ashland, Montana. A
find from a Native American school, alone, is interesting, but upon doing a
little research, there was even more of the story to be discovered.

It turns
out that The St. Labre Indian School in Montana is a private, Roman Catholic
school that also places great importance on Native American culture and
tradition. Most of the students are
current members of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Tribes and receive both a
Catholic K-12 education, while also receiving instruction on Native American
languages, history, and tribal government.
Led by director Curtis Yarlott, or “Yellow Arrows,” and principal
Trivian RidestheBear, the St. Labre Indian School is a fully accredited
institution and highly regarded in the state of Montana. Did you know that such a school existed? We
certainly didn’t.

So, how
does a Catholic, Native American school come to be, you may ask? Founded in 1884, St. Labre was created
because a former soldier stationed in the area contacted Catholic Bishop John
Brondel of Helena, Montana, and told him of the Cheyenne and Crow Tribes who
were roaming with no land and no homes – displaced as a result of
homesteading. The Bishop helped to
arrange a purchase of the land, and St. Labre was built. The school (originally a three-room log cabin
that served as the residence, school, dormitory and church) was taught and
overseen by a combination of three priests and nuns. Today, the St. Labre “miracle” (as it is now
referred to by residents) boasts an enrollment of over 750 Native American
students and employs both Tribal and Catholic instructors.

See what
we mean when we first stated that the beaded clip really had a story? Who could have guessed? If you are interested in owning the 1979 copy
of “Serpentine,” (complete with beaded clip) it is for sale here at Bayswater
for the price of $6.99. To catch up with
our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always check
us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center
Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

It is safe to say that
here at Bayswater, we never know what to expect when we open the cover of a used
book or slide it on a shelf. This week’s
find on the used book floor was tucked into the back cover of a pocket-sized,
hardcover of “The Marked New Testament” that was published in 1899. “The Marked New Testament” was published by
the Bible Institute Colportage Association, which was founded only a few years
before with the sole purpose of distributing religious books at a cost
affordable to all. While cost effective
at the time, it also might be one of the smallest religion books we have ever
seen, that’s for sure (a magnifying glass could be required here).

As we
opened the book, out came a handful of old (also tiny) newspaper
clippings. At first, we thought that
they might be additional scripture readings or thoughts related to a passage in
the New Testament. Makes sense,
right? Alas, how wrong we were. The very old clippings were actually jokes
that had been printed a very long time ago, it appears, though there are no
dates on the clippings. Jokes tucked into a New
Testament from 1899? We kid you not (ok,
a small pun was needed there).

One of our favorites was entitled, “Her
Business.” It reads as follows:

We found
at least ten faded newspaper print jokes in "The New Marked Testament" and if you
have read any of our previous columns, you know that we must have a thought about why they were found hidden in a religious
book. Was it to provide comic relief in
church? Can’t you just picture someone pretending to read The New Testament and
instead, suppressing a chuckle due to the hidden jokes?

The 1899
copy of The Marked New Testament (complete with jokes) is free (yes, free) for
the asking here at Bayswater. To catch
up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always
check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in
Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Thursday, August 24, 2017

We shelve books of all genres on our used book
floor, but without a doubt, the books that provide the most interesting finds
for us have been found in the cooking section.
People seem to feel that cookbooks are a good place to jot down notes or
tuck in newspaper articles. Really - check
out the cookbooks on your shelves some rainy day and see what we mean. Cookbooks
are clearly windows to our souls.

This
week’s find on the used book floor was discovered in…you guessed it, a
cookbook! Published in 1929, the
“Rumford Complete Cookbook” was put together by the Department of Home
Economics of the Rumford Chemical Company in Providence, R.I. We know you are thinking it, so we’re just
going to put it right out there…a chemical company that puts together a
cookbook? Interesting.

Taped to
the back cover of the book is a newspaper recipe clipping from 1955 for the
Eisenhower Chocolate Cake. This was not
just any chocolate cake, we discovered. Upon
doing a little research we found that during his first year in office, Hershey
hosted a giant 63rd birthday party for President Eisenhower and
constructed a cake that was 9 feet wide and 6 feet tall. This gigantic chocolate confection was made
mostly of plywood and paper mache, but there was a very small portion of it
that was actual cake created specifically for Eisenhower in honor of his
birthday. Only the President and his
wife were allowed to eat from that cake, as the 600 other guests dined on
alternate confections. It was during
this celebration that the Eisenhower Chocolate Cake was born and the recipe
became a hot commodity. It, therefore,
makes sense that the woman who owned this cookbook 62 years ago would have
considered the Eisenhower Chocolate Cake recipe newspaper clipping to be a
“must have” in her cookbook. Who knew? We included a picture of the recipe in case
you want to try your hand at it, too.

The Eisenhower Chocolate Cake recipe is only
one of many newspaper clippings that we found pasted into the “Rumford Complete
Cookbook” and the cookbook (complete with finds) is for sale here at Bayswater
for the price of $19.99, as it was published in 1929. To catch up with our previous finds of the
week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center Harbor and
check out the used book floor for yourself!

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Our most recent find of the week on the used book
floor is a true blast from the past in so many ways. Tucked into a 1964 paperback copy of the
novel “In Vivo” was a letter written and mailed in December of 1968 from a
mother in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to her son and his wife in Niantic,
Connecticut.

Before we
get to the letter inside the book, however, we found that the book, itself, is
somewhat of a find, as it is a historical novel that deals with (what was then)
the relatively new discovery and use of antibiotics in the medical field. More effective strains of antibiotics were
discovered in the 1960s, the time period during which “In Vivo” was written. How interesting would it be to read a novel
today that was based on the “new” and “uncharted” discovery of antibiotics by
characters back then? The book’s 1964
reviewers couldn’t seem to put the “exciting” book down, they stated. Ahh, progress.

But, back
to the letter. It appears to have been
written just after the son and his wife were visiting their parents/in-laws on
3½ Elliot Street in St. Johnsbury, VT.
Yes, you read correctly – 3½ Elliot Street. Why the half, you may ask? We wondered, too. Apparently, in older cities in New England,
the street numbers were given out consecutively, without skipping numbers to
allow for future buildings to be constructed.
As a result, ½ and even ¼ street addresses were later assigned to new
structures. That sounds like something
right out of Harry Potter to us.

The
mother wrote to her son about how she finally sold her all of her Bates stock
(from the Bates Worldwide advertising and marketing company) at $19 a share
after having bought a great deal of it in the mid 1940s – only a handful of
years after the company was founded. She
stated that as a “staunch New Englander” she hated to risk selling it at a
loss, so she got nervous and got rid of the stock when she saw the price rise
above $17 a share – what she purchased it for.
Little did she know that Bates Worldwide, whose future clients would include
M&Ms, Nabisco, Colgate and Palmolive (just to name a few) would prove to be
a powerhouse in the world of advertising and their profits exploded in the 70s
and 80s. Too bad. Makes you wonder what her investment would
have turned into had she not sold the stock in the 1960s. We will never know.

As with
all of our used books that we feature here at Bayswater, “In Vivo” can be yours
for the price of $2.99. To catch up with
our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always check
us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in Center
Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Do you ever watch the police procedural (or
detective) shows on TV? You know, the
ones where the investigator asks the potential suspects where they were and
what was happening on a particular date?
Unless the date in question was very recent, who really remembers details like that? Our latest find of the week on the used book
floor allowed us to do a little research regarding one particular date –
January 25, 1980 – and what one man may have been experiencing on that day.

This week’s
discovery was a Long Island Railroad ticket from Friday, January 25, 1980,
tucked into a copy of Stuart Woods’ book, “Standup Guy”. The ticket was purchased by a male and it is
clear by the number of punches on it that the ticket was used for commuting to
and from work during the week of January 20-25 in 1980. Hmm…we wondered, what was happening during
that time in the life of a Brooklyn, New York commuter?

On that
day, we surmise that the commuter could have been trying to catch a brief cat nap, as Super
Bowl XIV had recently concluded and he may have been shouting at the TV until a
late hour, perhaps lamenting that neither New York NFL team even made
the playoffs that year (the Pittsburg Steelers won and QB Terry Bradshaw was
named the MVP). As he sat on the subway,
maybe he read about how President Jimmy Carter announced a United States
boycott of the Moscow Olympics to be held that summer. Perhaps he was looking out the window and
thinking about the economy and his own job security, as inflation had
skyrocketed to 13.5% (it is now 2.9%) and would eventually lead to a recession
in the early 1980s. Or maybe, because it
was Friday, he simply couldn’t wait for the weekend (even a cold January one in
New York).

Whatever he may have been thinking or reading
about, we found that on that day in 1980, a New York Long Island Railroad
ticket cost a total of .60 cents. If the
man commuted five days a week for a total of 20 weekdays in a month, he spent
$12 a month on his subway pass. To put
that in perspective, if one were to purchase a ticket for the same amount of time
in that subway system now, it would cost $103 (a good example of
inflation).

As with
all of our used books that we feature here at Bayswater, “Standup Guy” can be
yours for the price of $2.99. To catch
up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can always
check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store in
Center Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!

Thursday, August 3, 2017

We have all probably finished a book and passed it
on to someone else at least once or twice in our lifetime, but who can remember
which book we gave to whom, and how long ago?
Thanks to this week’s find on the used book floor here at Bayswater, we
can answer that question – at least for ten men in the year 1947.

In a 1946
hardcover copy of Thunder Out of China, we
found a list of the New Hampshire YMCA Reading Circle from 1947. What was a reading circle, you may ask? Was it similar to a knitting or quilting
circle, where individuals gathered together to knit/quilt/work on individual
projects while they visited? The answer,
at least in 1947 in NH, was no. A
reading circle featured a book that was purchased and passed on, one month at a
time, to each member. The member was
granted one month to read the title and on the first day of the following
month, read or not, the individual was required to mail it to the next person
on the reading list. The names of all
ten men, their addresses, and the month that the book was to be in their
possession are listed on a card inside of the book.

At that
time, the reading circle consisted of men who lived throughout the state of NH
in the towns of Littleton, Dover, Lakeport, Lisbon, Keene, Nashua and Center
Conway. The circle started out with
Andrew in Keene for the month of September, followed by John in Dover for the month
of October, and so on, until it ended up back at the State YMCA in Concord (now
simply referred to as the Concord YMCA) in July of 1948. In
short, this book was read and shipped from person to person across the state roughly 70 years ago! Might we also add (gleaned
from the bold typing in all caps not so subtly reminding all members of the
need for promptness) that we think one would not have wanted to be late in
sending the book on in this circle.
After all, Hugh from Nashua, Roger from Center Conway, or Charles from
Littleton, should they be waiting on the book from you, had your name and
address.

As with
all of our used books that we feature here at Bayswater, Thunder Out of China can be yours for the price of $7, (complete
with the 1947 NH reading circle find). To
catch up with our previous finds of the week from the used book floor, you can
always check us out at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Have you ever written notes to yourself regarding what
you think about a particular paragraph of a book, or how it pertains to your
life? If so, we have found that you are
definitely not alone. Our discoveries
this week are of people who have done just that, and boy, has it made for a fun
time here at Bayswater.

One of
our favorite finds was tucked into the 1969 book, A Loving Wife. According to the
author, this novel is about a “nice woman nearing middle age portrayed with wonderfully
civilized grace” (whatever that means) and her journey through life as a mother
and wife. On a small piece of trucking stationary
inside the cover we found a handwritten note in response to the title of the
book. The note read, “far from the title”. We wondered, did the writer of the note think
that the character of the book was far from a loving wife or could it be that the note’s author was talking about his actual wife? Truthfully, we think it was the latter and
that notion has created many possible scenarios to build upon regarding a
trucker on the open road, gleaning advice from this 1969 book for women while
writing down a few true confessions of his own.

Another
of our favorites was found in the 2015 book, Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice for Yourself and the World Around
You. Towards the beginning, the
author writes about how he was talking to the stranger next to him on a commercial
flight and the stranger stated that he worked for oil companies and traveled a
lot. The author thought that the
stranger looked distracted, however, and when the stranger got up to use the
bathroom, the author wrote that he suspected that the man “wasn’t telling him the
truth” and that the stranger actually “didn’t work for oil companies, but was
really the air marshal”. Written on a
small card and placed with an arrow pointing to this passage was the following
message:

“Don- can I get an amen?! – Phyllis”

Did
Phyllis (whoever she was) also have experience trying to root out which
passenger could have been the air marshal during her travels? Was Don her assistant in that quest? Let us all hope that Phyllis is not in the
seat next to us next time we fly the friendly skies. Move over, Columbo…Phyllis (and possibly Don)
is on the scene.

Our featured used books are always for sale here at Bayswater and The Loving Wife can be yours for the
price of $18, as it is a first edition (and yes, you can have the note, too).
Translating God, however, is
no longer available, as it just sold last week during the used book sale. To catch up with our previous finds of the
week from the used book floor, you can always check us out at
bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook, or stop by the store!

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Here at Bayswater, we are gearing up for our annual giant used book sale event and as a result, we have been handling even more used
books than we normally do in the course of a week. That means, of course, more interesting
discoveries to be made!

This week we found the test scores for a male
student who took the National Engineering Aptitude Search Test (NEAS) as a 12th
grader in 1968. At the time, this test
was organized by the Junior Engineering Technical Society, a non-profit
organization that sought to promote engineering careers to high school
students. The test was taken using the
old punch card system, requiring that student answers be marked by punching
holes in the card to allow for what we now recognize as an early form of
computerized data entry. As you can see,
the scores were reported on one single piece of cardstock no larger than a
check. Back then, misplace your test
score report and there was no checking online to print out another. Do you remember those days?

The student who took this test (and then left it in
a book almost 50 years ago) displayed a very high aptitude for
engineering.In fact, the student scored
higher than 90% of all other students in the nation who took this engineering
aptitude test in 1968!Clearly, this
student had the makings of a top-notch future engineer.

Upon researching entrance requirements to engineering
schools during 1968, we found that scores such as these would have helped this
student to gain entrance into many top colleges and universities. The question is…did he ever go to any such
schools? Did he, in fact, become an
engineer, or did he decide to pursue another avenue, instead? Why would he
leave such a stellar score report in a random book? Did he ever show his family? Ahh, the mysteries that pour forth from our
used book floor. We could easily get
carried away with questions, here.

Our thanks to those of you who have stopped by to
see the now “famous” (as we have been told that it now is) used book floor in
our store. We even had a customer head
upstairs yesterday excitedly proclaiming her high hopes that she, too, will
discover the next gem hidden in the once loved pages that have now found a home
on Bayswater’s second floor. You never
know…

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Who needs a shovel or a map to find hidden treasures? Every day is a hunt for long lost treasures
here at Bayswater – except they come hidden in our used books. Move over, Captain Blackbeard, and make way
for the independent booksellers of Center Harbor, NH!

In our finds this week, we discovered a 1914 book
entitled, The Neighborhood Cookbook, published by the Council of Jewish Women in Portland, Oregon, for the Neighborhood House:
a non-profit organization which (still today) assists the vulnerable immigrant
populations in the city. The cookbook
contains many recipes, including an entire section labeled “Invalid Cookery”. You know we had to take a peek at that section just for fun. Upon doing so, we found that the authors insisted
that “dishes for invalids should be served in the daintiest and most attractive
way,” and the “flesh of young animals” is best to bring, as it is most tender
and easy to digest. Um…ok.

Best of all, however, was what we discovered in the book. We found a recipe handwritten on a piece of
stationary from The Carolina, a majestic hotel in Pinehurst, N.C., that opened
in 1901. In the early 1900s, The
Carolina boasted large, glamorous hotel orchestras for dancing in the ballrooms
and was known as a premier place to stay in the south. The stationary states that E.G. Fitzgerald
was the manager at that time and upon doing a little research, we found that
this was the case in 1915. This meant
that our handwritten recipe on The Carolina’s stationary was most likely from a
guest who stayed there around that time.
What an interesting find!

Don’t miss us next week as we uncover new treasures on
the used book floor (otherwise known as the alluring open seas for us
non-pirate booksellers). You can also
keep track of our finds on our website, bayswaterbooks.com, and our facebook
page.

Friday, July 7, 2017

If you
read last week's blog, (the first in our "Find of the Week on the Used Book
Floor" series) you already know that here at Bayswater, we are finding
amazing items in and among the many books we have for sale on our used book
floor. This week’s find comes in a book
published in 1889 entitled Elements of
Composition and Grammar. Yes, the
book, alone, is a great discovery, as it appears to be a first edition and is
now 118 years old. Elements of Composition and Grammar also displays a beautiful
engraved cover (see picture). But, alas,
the book was not the best find – that award goes to what we discovered in the
pages.

Perfectly pressed and sandwiched into pages 10-11 (in the “Exercises for
Dictation” chapter, in case you were wondering) was a four leaf clover that,
while we cannot be sure of the exact date it was preserved, appears to be very old and quite large. Also found a few pages later was a postcard
with a postmark of the year 1890 sent from Boston to an esquire in Boscawen,
New Hampshire. The postcard is
handwritten on the front and contains information on the back regarding the 1889
decision by government officials of the State of Vermont to use Greenleaf’s
Arithmetics book in all of the state’s schools.

While it may seem that we must spend countless hours flipping through our used books in search of our next great find, we assure you, they just appear in the course of our daily fun here at Bayswater. Be sure to check in next week to see what our next great “Find of the Week on the Used Book Floor” will be and don’t forget to stop by and check out the section for yourself!